Welcome! This thread tells the story of how the NEW VISIONS series, published thru IDW, came into being. The first post, here, is a long, long way from that series being anything like real. Merely, as noted, a fannish indulgence on my part. For those who take an interest in the arcane procedures that lead to comicbook series coming into being, however -- well, read on!

As a big fan of the short-lived series of fotonovels in the 70s, I love this! Nicely laid out, the images well-chosen to show visual business like transporting down to M-113 while simultaneously doing Kirk's captain's log.

You probably know this, but just in case not, there are sites that have the entire transcripts of all the original TOS shows. I refer to the them on occasion and they're generally pretty good. link

Shaun Barry: Clever! I particularly like the slow, 3-panel fade-in on the transporter effect, and giving McCoy two separate word balloons makes his line "By bribing them?" even funnier.

I'm all for seeing how the rest of this episode pans out, JB-style!

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Me too! It's like when I first got a peek at 'Crew' - it's a tad scary how natural a fit JB's style is with classic TREK!

Of course, the really spooky thing is just how much the original Enterprise crew (i.e., Pike, Number One, Boyce, etc.) look like 'JB-style characters' in real life! By which I mean, if ever I saw a group of real-life people who look like they'd been created and drawn by JB, it'd be the bridge crew from 'The Cage':

I'll say it again - JB's IDW TREK comics are one of the few spin-offs to properly capture the original TREK feel (to the point where 'Crew' felt akin to seeing some long-lost unproduced scripts from the show archives, made into comics!). It's a criminal shame that TPTB decided to focus on new movie spin-offs instead (half of which are just weak retellings of original TREK episodes) - here's hoping that someone in charge sees sense, and green-lights more GOOD Star Trek comics soon...

Part of my motivation for playing with this is "practise". For years -- okay, decades -- I've been wondering if I really could build a "missing episode" this way. A whole new story, made up of screen shots from as many episodes as would "co-operate".

One the questions, of course, is whether I would completely restrict myself to existing "footage", or allow myself access to, say, my 3D modeler for ships we haven't seen before -- or even a new alien race. And if I went so far as to combine images -- the new aliens on the Bridge, for instance -- would that be "cheating"?

Part of my motivation for playing with this is "practise". For years -- okay, decades -- I've been wondering if I really could build a "missing episode" this way. A whole new story, made up of screen shots from as many episodes as would "co-operate".+++++++++++++++++++++++

Do it! DO IT!

I'm darn well not gonna leave this life without reading a Byrne story set during TOS proper and featuring the main cast! If it's unpublished fanfic made from screencaps, so be it!

Actually, I thought there was at least one TOS unfilmed script/plot/detailed outline, probably third season, that was supposed to star Milton Berle? I always wanted to play with that, even if it was a third season leftover (so yeah, probably not that good).

Part of my motivation for playing with this is "practise". For years -- okay, decades -- I've been wondering if I really could build a "missing episode" this way. A whole new story, made up of screen shots from as many episodes as would "co-operate".+++++++++++++++++++++++

Do it! DO IT!

I'm darn well not gonna leave this life without reading a Byrne story set during TOS proper and featuring the main cast! If it's unpublished fanfic made from screencaps, so be it!=========HA! That's awesome Greg. I'd just'd like to see if he can do it. TNG had over 200 episodes with very similar generic aliens. That would almost be too easy. This would be quite a challenge.

I'll leave it to someone who actually cares about those characters to try this with TNG. And ask that this thread not now dissolve into a wish list of other iterations of TREK. Only TOS is under consideration, here.

There are many considerations that need to be addressed before embarking upon a project like this. As already noted, there is the question of whether my story could include new sets/models/characters. Beyond that, when I have thought about something like this over the years, I have also wondered about some of the following:

• Guest Stars. Would I want to feature characters "returning"? A story I long ago wanted to explore, for instance, was the return of Gary Mitchell. But if that happened, how would I handle it? Would I allow myself to use shots of Gary Lockwood lifted from sources outside STAR TREK? And what about actors who have not appeared on TREK? Would it be "cheating" (and perhaps even pointless) to finally have Robert Culp guest star on the show?

• Post-TOS Continuity. In my IDW series I have already visited the characters as they were after the show. While this project would be set "between episodes" in the original, would I be bound to what we know from what came later? Could I finally do "The Face of Fear", and "reveal" why the Klingons looked so different in TMP, or does the ENTERPRISE resolution block that path? This is, after all, the kind of project that would be endlessly dissected by the overly anal fanboys, and while I generally care not a whit about what they might think, I also don't want to just HAND them their ammunition!

• A Bottle Episode. Depending on the limitations placed by my decisions about new sets and new ships, would I be limited to a story that takes place entirely aboard the Enterprise? TOS often recycled bits and pieces of sets and props from previous episodes -- NOMAD's "head" atop the Romulan cloaking device, the Tantalus control panel decorating McCoy's office, Beta V as Mr. Atos' console, etc -- so would I be at liberty to do the same?

Which, of course, brings up the BIG question:

• Cut and Paste. When I first conceived this project, lo these many years ago, my thought was to use scenes, including dialog, from TOS show ON VIDEO. Doing it in "fumetti" form is, of course, enormously liberating in this respect, since I can have the characters saying entirely different dialog -- but can I drop Character A into Scene Q, where s/he was not before, in order to get the scene/interaction I want? Just how "pure" does this project need to be?

Follow Up: Here's a "Cut and Paste" sample I put together this morning.

The scene has no particular "meaning". (Bad day for Scotty? Actually, he was just the first one I found lying on the floor at the right angle!) Just seeing for myself how well various elements could be integrated. A distinct bonus is that TOS used virtually the same lighting set-ups on all scenes that did not require specific "mood".

My opinion -- I have strong feeling that you should "cheat" to your heart's content. I think it would be part of the fun. As a longtime comic book author, you are uniquely qualified to add or rearrange elements that would help the story and not call attention to itself.

When I was a kid, I was a fan of the "Fotonovels" posted above. They were a great mix of TV and comic book storytelling, especially considering we were living in the south, and nobody was showing STAR TREK on TV!

But when I read the Fotonovels today, I can't get through the poorly placed dialogue balloons and clunky image choice/placement. As the first post shows, JB's ability to tell a visual story is as strong as ever. He knows how to move a story on a page better than those Foto-authours could do.

He knows how to move a story on a page better than those Foto-authours could do.

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I didn't get much of an impression that the people behind those Fotonovels had any experience actually creating comic books.

This is something I have noticed many a time when "Science Fiction Artists" attempt to cross over into this field. They may be superb at their particular job, but the language of comics eludes them. So, too, with the Fotonovels. Taking pictures and sticking word balloons into them does not a comicbook make!

For what it's worth, my reaction to your questions about the "rules" all boils down to: how good can you make it look?

Bringing in new elements and actors sounds great to me if they look "native" enough in the end product. Knowing how tough that can be, part of me leans to wishing for a "bottle episode," in hopes that the visuals will look more seamless.

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